


Tabula Rasa

by cptxrogers



Series: Stony bingo fills [6]
Category: Marvel Adventures: Avengers
Genre: Amnesia, Costume Swap, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 23:59:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11474370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cptxrogers/pseuds/cptxrogers
Summary: When Loki decides to wipe Steve and Tony’s memories, the two of them have to figure out their mission - and their identities - for themselves.





	Tabula Rasa

**Author's Note:**

> Because amnesia is such a fun trope omg. I thought... double amnesia would be even better.  
> This is set in the cute and fluffy Marvel Adventures: Avengers universe <3  
> For this image square on my stony bingo card:  
> 

It was supposed to be their day off, that was the thing. Tony and Steve had plans for a quick game of basketball then a trip to the cinema to see a rerun of  _Alien_ , but they’d got word that Loki had been spotted terrorizing citizens in downtown New York by conjuring an army of evil bunny rabbits.

“Come on, Tony, let’s drop by and sort out Loki, then see if we can still make the matinee showing at the cinema.” Steve had turned his most winning smile on Tony, and really, who could resist that?

They almost succeeded in battling through the hordes of vicious fluffy bunny monsters and taking down Loki, but at the last minute he caught them by surprise, summoning thick green vines which burst up from the sidewalk and held them in place.

“Puny mortals,” Loki said smugly. “You only succeed in foiling my plans in the past because of your prior experience, or you wouldn’t stand a chance against me. Let’s see how heroic you are without your memories!”

He waved his hands in an elaborate pattern and a burst of golden light flew across the street and hit both of them. Tony felt pain for a moment, and then there was only darkness.

 

* * *

 

He came around to see a terribly handsome blond man leaning over him, looking concerned. “Are you okay?” the man asked gently.

Tony sat up and looked around in confusion. He wasn’t injured or in pain, but his head felt thick and fuzzy. He tried to remember how he had come to be lying in the middle of the street, but there was nothing, just a blank space in his memory.

“Um. Yes? Sort of? Why can’t I remember anything?”

The blond chewed his lip nervously. “I’m afraid I couldn’t say. I woke up next to you a couple of minutes ago, but I don’t remember anything from before that either.”

Something was nagging at Tony’s attention, and he realized with a start that it was because his movements felt heavy and difficult to control. There was some kind of plate over his face which he flicked up, and he looked down to realise that he was wearing, of all things, a shiny bright red and gold suit of armor. Huh.

He looked back at the blond man, and noted that his outfit was pretty unusual too. Chainmail over a blue body suit that was, uhh, rather tightly fitted, with red and white stripes round the middle and a big white star on the front. There was a cowl attached to the suit which he had pushed back to reveal dreamy blue eyes, and the ensemble was finished off with bright red boots and gloves. 

Was that an… American flag themed outfit? Jesus. Tony hoped he hadn’t been rescued by a passionate Trump supporter. That was unlikely to end well.

“What do you reckon?” he asked, indicating their clothes and trying for friendly. “Were we on our way to a fancy dress party? Comic convention? LARP?”

The blond gave him an odd look. “What’s a LARP?”

“Uhh, never mind.” Tony patted himself down, looking for an ID card or a wallet. No such luck.

But he did feel something cool pressed against his chest. He tugged at the chain he had around his neck and hummed with satisfaction when he pulled out a pair of dog tags. “Here, look,” he said. “I must be military. According to my tags, I’m Steven Rogers.”

The blond smiled at him. “Well, Steven, that’s a great start. Do you think you go by Steven or Steve?”

Tony pulled a face. Neither of those names felt quite right for him. Close, but not right. “Uhh. I guess I’ll go with Steve for now.”

“Alright then, Steve, let’s get you up.” The blonde stood and offered a hand to Tony, then lifted him like it was no effort at all. Tony gave a little gasp as he got to his feet. This armor was definitely extremely heavy, but this guy had hoisted him up easily.

“Say, buddy, you sure seem to be strong. Do you think you could lift me, armor and all?”

The blond gave a little shrug and wrapped one arm around Tony’s waist. He picked him up without breaking a sweat, and Tony tried not to kick his legs in the air as he thought that might be undignified.

The blond put him down gently and stared at his own arms. “I guess that these muscles aren’t just for show, then,” he said, poking his biceps curiously.

“Wait a minute. You can’t just have super strong muscles, that’s not how biology works. To take the impact of the kind of force you’re generating, you must have stronger tendons and ligaments than baseline, and maybe even a reinforced skeletal structure. You woke up before I did - I bet your metabolism is faster than usual too. Are you hungry?”

The blond’s stomach gurgled loudly. “I’ll take that as a yes,” Tony said with a grin. “I think you might be an enhanced human. Once we’ve figured out where we are, let’s get burgers and we can talk about it!”

“Well, you’re clearly the brains of the operation, Steve. You must be the leader, I think. The genius Steven Rogers and his side kick, America Man!”

That didn’t sound quite right either.

“Um. Maybe? Anyway, there’s no point us standing around in the street, is there? Let’s find somewhere to hide out and see if we can work out what happened to us.”

The blond nodded and pulled the cowl up and over his eyes with what was obviously practiced ease. He looked down at the round, shiny shield that was lying next to him. “Going by the color scheme, I guess this is mine.” He sounded dubious, but when he picked it up, it slid onto his arm like it belonged there and he smiled.

“I need something to call you, though,” Tony said. Then he looked at the little wings on the side of the blond’s cowl and decided. “I’m going to name you Winghead,” he said with a smile.

Winghead beamed at him. “I do like that. Alright then, Steve, let’s go!”

 

* * *

 

Winghead confidently led the way, winding through tiny side streets and alleys where they wouldn’t be observed. “You seem to be good at this!” Tony called out to him.

Winghead shrugged, but Tony could see he was smiling under the cowl. “I feel like I know this place,” he said. “And it’s easy enough to avoid attention in a big city.”

“You? Avoid attention? I’m not sure that’s possible.” Tony was delighted to see that the blond was blushing. “I’m sure you’d catch my eye in any location.”

He actually giggled at that, and wasn’t that adorable?

Once they had found a sufficiently secluded alley, they turned out their pockets to search for clues to their identities.

Winghead removed his gloves and dug through the many little pouches on his belt, checking the contents of each. There was some strange looking electronic equipment that they didn’t want to risk using without knowing what it was, some butterscotch candy which they ate enthusiastically, a handkerchief, a ring, and a handful of money.

They inspected the ring carefully. The outside was plain, but the inside was etched with the word ‘Stark’.

“Any idea what this means?” he asked.

Tony shrugged. “Could be your family name,” he suggested.

The blond nodded at that and slipped the ring onto his finger. It fitted perfectly. “I guess it must be. Anyway, now we’ve got some money, let’s get some food. I see a hot dog cart over there.”

Tony patted his suit down but found no money anywhere. “Perhaps I’m broke,” he said with a sigh.

“That’s okay, we can share! It’d be my pleasure to treat a handsome guy like you to dinner.”

Now it was Tony’s turn to blush.

The guy manning the hot dog cart took in their costumes with a whistle. “Great outfits, guys!”

“Thank you,” Tony said rather uncertainly. Maybe this guy might have some information which could help them. “Do you, uh, recognize us? I’m Steve Rogers, you see, and that’s Stark.”

“Stark and Rogers, is it?” the hot dog man said with a laugh. “Then your costumes are the wrong way round.” He pointed to Tony’s armor, “That’s Stark’s gear.” And then he indicated the blond’s stars and stripes getup. “And that’s Rogers’ costume. Everyone knows that!”

They thanked the man for his help, paid for their hot dogs with the little money they had, and retreated to a quiet corner to plan.

“If he’s right…” Tony began uncertainly. “Maybe we ought to swap costumes. We might feel more like our old selves in the right outfits. And he did seem very sure.”

Winghead considered this and nodded slowly. “Okay,” he said, “but I think you’re going to need to help me into that armor.”

 

* * *

 

They found an abandoned warehouse piled high with wooden crates and decided that it would do as a base for now. Winghead pushed back his cowl and unclipped the belt from around his waist and tossed his boots and gloves aside.

When he pulled his blue chainmail top off over his head, Tony couldn’t help but stare at the expanse of pale skin and flexing muscles of his chest.

“Buh,” said Tony helpfully.

Winghead rolled his eyes and walked over to help remove the armor from Tony. It was confusing and a bit fiddly, trying to work out how to remove all of these metal pieces while being distracted by the sensation of his very attractive companion’s fingers on his skin.

Together, they managed to strip him out of the armor until he was left in just a tight black undersuit, which Tony decided against sharing with his companion. It would never go over this guy’s thick thighs anyway.

Winghead looked him up and down and said, “Guh.”

They managed to get into each other’s costumes with only a small degree of difficulty. The armor just barely fit over Winghead’s expansive chest and the blue pants were too long on Tony.

There was also the slight issue of the small.. physiological reaction Tony was having to the stars and stripes costume. Wearing it seemed, uhh, exciting in a way he hadn’t been prepared for. Kind of racy, really. A little bit naughty. Did he always feel like this when he put it on, he wondered? It seemed strange to go into battle feeling so… moved.

He looked up to find Winghead staring at him, open mouthed. “You-” he made a little strangled coughing noise. “You look good.”

“Really?” Tony asked, tugging awkwardly at the hem of his stripy shirt.

“Yeah,” Winghead said, advancing on him. “ _Really_ good.” He brought two gauntleted hands up to rest against the wall on either side of Tony’s head.

He hadn’t put on the helmet yet, so Tony felt himself boxed in by armor that was comfortingly familiar, topped off with a kind face and a beaming smile.

Feeling reckless, he reached out and pulled the mysterious Winghead closer, the cool armor pressing up against him. He leaned up and his companion leaned down, only millimeters between them, and just as their lips were about to meet-

They were interrupted by a burst of golden light and an evil cackling sound. They leaped apart and gazed upwards to see and outrageously dressed man with an enormous gold horned helmet rubbing his hands together in amusement.

“Let’s see how you fare against Loki now!” he screamed and raised a hand.

 

* * *

 

They swung into action. Tony was, to put it bluntly, struggling already. He worried that he was about to trip over in the soft red boots, the chainmail round his chest was unbelievably heavy, and every time he tried to swing the shield in front of him he kept hitting himself in the chin.

Loki was circling above them, sparks leaping from each of his fingers. Tony sized him up, took aim with his shield arm, and threw as hard as he could. The shield spun out of his grip, missed Loki, hit the wall, bounced, hit another wall, ricocheted around the room and ended up cuffing Tony in the back of the head.

His partner didn’t seem to be faring much better. He had declared that he couldn’t see a thing out of the small eye slits in the armor’s mask, and then complained that the armor pieces were weighing him down and impeding his movements.

He tried to fire off a repulsor blast from one hand, and failed. He turned his palm upwards to face him and peered closely at the repulsor. “How does this work?” he asked. “Do I just-”

“I really wouldn’t do tha-” Tony started, but too late. Winghead blasted himself squarely in the face and fell backwards.

Loki laughed manically where he floated above them. “This is most entertaining!” he called smugly. “The great heroes Stark and Rogers, reduced to a pair of bumbling fools. I don’t even need to fight you, I could just leave you here and watch you knock yourselves out.”

Tony dropped his shield and ran over to his partner. He was dazed but responsive, so all was not lost. “Here,” he said, gently removing the repulsor gauntlet from around his wrist and hand. “I think we should leave this to the side for now.”

He agreed and they tried to regroup. They stood back to back while Loki laughed, swishing his hands and chanting an invocation until the crates in the warehouse seemed to take on a life of their own, throwing themselves down on the pair and rolling into their path to block their way.

Winghead grabbed up the shield and held it over both of them, protecting them from the boxes falling from above. One particularly large box was teetering on the top of a stack nearby, and as it fell Tony felt himself thrown to one side.

Tony looked up at Loki, then down to the abandoned gauntlet on the floor, then to his partner. He was holding the shield in front of him and gave him a solid nod. Acting on instinct, Tony grabbed the repulsor glove up off the floor, slipped it onto his hand, and aimed a heavy beam straight at the white star in the center of the shield.

His partner caught the beam and angled it upwards, tracing an arc of crackling energy across the room and straight into Loki.

Loki squawked as the voluminous fur around his shoulders burst into flame.

Then, an enormous burst of thunder ripped through the air, and all three of them stared upwards to see a beautiful woman in black leotard and a flowing black cape descending through a hole in the roof. The wind whipped around her and her eyes glowed with the power of lighting.

“Storm,” Loki squeaked, looking panicked. “My dear, so good to see you again-”

“You will come with us, Loki,” she said firmly.

Loki looked around in panic. His eyes settled on a figure striding out of the darkness - a short, squat man with plentiful facial hair and great silver claws coming out of his knuckles.

“Just you and Wolverine?” Loki asked primly. “I was doing so well against these two-” he indicated Tony and his companion with a contemptuous wave, “I’m sure I could handle you as well.”

“Don’t forget about me,” a voice said, as a streak of red and blue swung past them, shooting webbing from his wrists.

“And me,” a gruff voice growled as a huge green monster stepped out of the shadows.

“I can still win!” Loki started desperately. “I’ve beaten you before-”

They were interrupted by a foot the size of a bus crashing through the ceiling, and looking up and up and up they caught sight of a smiling young woman who must have been 60 feet tall looming over them. She waved cheerfully. “Tony! Steve! We’ve missed you!”

Tony looked at his partner, who shrugged helplessly. “I guess she means us?”

This was all very strange, Tony decided. And yet somehow he didn’t feel threatened by this odd assortment of people who had arrived. In fact, he felt quite at home.

The newcomers converged on Loki, who threw his hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine,” he snapped. “You win this time, Avengers.” The enormous woman scooped him up in one huge hand and held him as he wriggled.

The short gruff man advanced on Tony. He seemed to be smelling the air and glaring at him. “Hey, bub,” he said snippily. “You’re not Cap. You’re Tony.”

“Umm. Okay?” said Tony.

“So what’re you doing in Cap’s outfit?” he asked, nose wrinkling in distaste, and looking round at his partner. “And what's he doing in your armor?”

“What do you think, Logan?” the giant woman called down to them. “They’re trying roleplaying. Right guys?” she asked them with a wink.

His companion shrugged unhelpfully. “Umm. Okay?” Tony tried again.

The beautiful woman in the cape looked down at them from where she was floating. “Something is very wrong here. I’ve never seen Tony this compliant in my entire life,” she said firmly. “Loki!” she bellowed. “Whatever you’ve done to Tony and Steve, you will undo it this instant.”

Loki grumbled under his breath. The giant woman gave him a persuasive squeeze and he relented.

“All right, gods, you mortals have no sense of humor, the tiniest little memory spell and there’s no end of complaining.” He pulled his hands free and waved them in a pattern that looked like the opposite of what he’d done before.

Once again, everything went black.

 

* * *

 

Tony woke groggily, coming round to see Steve bent over him again. He took in the sight of Steve in his armor and he couldn’t help but grin.

“You make a great Iron Man, you know that, Rogers?” he said fondly.

Steve relaxed and the worry melted off his face. “He’s okay,” he called to the group with relief. The rest of the Avengers were standing guard around Loki and watching them with concern. Steve gently lifted Tony until he was sitting upright.

“And you make a pretty good Captain America. Maybe leave the shield throwing to me though?”

Tony laughed. “All right, but if you ever borrow my armor again, try to not repulsor yourself in the face.”

Steve pulled him into a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said quietly. “I was worried you might not remember me.”

“Aww, Winghead,” Tony said, turning his face for a kiss. “Like I could ever forget you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Posted on tumblr [here](http://cptxrogers.tumblr.com/post/162870203738/tabula-rasa)!


End file.
